what goes around comes around

newton's third law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction which, translated into modern vernacular is pretty much what goes around comes around. in the long term, i've found this to be a truism - well, almost. around two years ago, i lent a small park chain tool to a couple touring the western isles when a chain broke on one of their bikes. the bike was miles away, and i hadn't the time to cycle out and fix it. i was assured that they'd pop the tool through my letterbox on the way to the ferry, however, you will probably be as unsuprised as i was when this failed to happen.

unfortunately, it's the few who spoil it for the many: i only kept this particular chain tool for such a purpose, but its disappearance meant that the next person with a broken chain was probably out of luck, unless they could make it to thewashingmachinepost bikeshed where the never lent out under any circumstances workshop chain tool could be put to good use. so where does newton's third law come into this? well, only a month or two back, i found an envelope inside the door with said long lost chain tool, inside an envelope with the word sorry written on the front.

what goes around, comes around.

it's a slogan, epithet, motto that can be applied to many a situation, and the chaps and chapesses at sue me have taken it so much to heart that they've popped it on their new t-shirts. sue me may not be a name that springs readily to the cyclist's mind, but if i point out that it's an offshoot of buff, then some of you may be moved to utter an aaah.. i have two t-shirts from sue me, one of which is black with the legend what goes around... on the front, resolved with ...comes around. on the back. the other shirt says exactly what it does on the tin, finishing with the manifesto:'we love life, we live it to the full, and we enjoy our planet. we'd like it to be around for generations to come.'

quite admirable, but to be honest, what has that to do with a t-shirt? cunningly, the other side of the very same t-shirt answers that very question, should you have found it necessary to ask. the t-shirts are very nearly threequarters bamboo (70%) with the remainder being filled in with organically grown cotton. since bamboo grows at an alarming rate, it's a highly sustainable resource; love the planet and it might just love you back. the legends applied to these shirts are of water based inks. if the notion of wearing a t-shirt fabricated from bamboo sounds a bit on the scratchy side, the t-shirt continues:once processed, a bamboo fibre is finer than a human hair, and has a smooth, round surface. it's also anti static, meaning no more jimi hendrix hairstyles.

however, at the end of the day, a t-shirt is just a t-shirt, except the sue me versions have a neatly hidden, zipped pocket on the right side, large enough to carry some loose change, or a few keys. i even managed to fit in a small panasonic digital camera, though admittedly it was slightly on the heavy side for the mesh inner. and they do feel remarkably soft in comparison to the myriad of others in my cycling wardrobe. charcoal has been touted as a material that resists odour when worn under testing conditions, a fact that i have been unable to substantiate in previous tests. sue me make no such claims, but you just never know.

and i also have a sue me buff, but you already know how versatile those are.

there's a variety of sue me products on sale from their website, including the latest spring/summer t-shirt collection, with t-shirts retailing at £29 while a plain, ordinary sue me buff, retails at £13. ideal for a swift trip to the bike shop, or for lazing around after you've re-fitted those troublesome gear cables.